Saturday, January 19, 2019

In Basra, protests continued on Friday. It's interesting, no links to liars, that some want to claim they "turned violent." Some rocks injured a police officer. Boo-hoo. Where were you at the start of the week when the police shot into crowds again? When they shot a protester in the back? Where were you and your sudden concerns about violence.

No where to be found. As usual in the US, outlets -- even those we think of as 'friends' -- half-ass their way and miss one story after another.

What were the protesters protesting on Friday?

The same things that they have been protesting all along with one addition.

They had a new call but you won't find that in any US press -- not even the 'independent' press.

The new demand is a call for the release of the protesters who were arrested earlier this week.

The same US outlets that ignore that demand ignored the arrest of the protesters earlier this week. From the January 15th snapshot:ALSUMARIA reports
Basra Operations Command announced yesterday that they will be
releasing protesters . . . shortly. They insist that this is for the
"protection" of the activists. These protesters were demonstrating
yesterday. And "protection" included, apparently, also shooting one
protester in the back. That's at least the fourth time in recent weeks
that Basra Operations Command have used "live ammo" on activists. The
third time was this past Friday.

Recent weeks have seen protesters fired on five times (the fifth was yesterday) and yet when a protester throws rocks suddenly it's "violent." That tells you all you need to know about the bias built-in to these 'reports.' They are not objective and they certainly are not fair.

Over at PBS, Saturday's NEWSHOUR included a report on the way the Iraqi government is failing the families of soldiers killed and failing soldiers who have been injured.

Meanwhile, at THE NATIONAL INTEREST, Daniel L. Davis argues, "America is not made secure by permanent combat deployments overseas." From his essay:

The point should be painfully clear: the Middle East is a violent and
chaotic place, and it hasn’t mattered whether American troops were
engaged there or not—and the nature of the region won’t change after we
leave. Amidst all of this chaos, however, the security of the American
homeland was guaranteed by our overwhelming conventional and nuclear
deterrent. Continuing to keep tens of thousands of American military,
contractor, and government officials deployed overseas in military
occupations with no clear objective are not merely pointless, but they
degrade our ability to protect the American homeland from potential
existential threats that may arise. I have fought in large-scale tank-on-tank battles, traditional
counterinsurgency fights, and foreign military training missions. I also
served in Korea in the 1990s against the backdrop of a perpetual threat
of large-scale battle, in Germany during the Cold War patrolling the
East-West border between the Soviet Union and Western Europe, and served
as the second-in-command of an Armored Cavalry Squadron.

The long-term effects of detracting our operational and training
focus away from preparing for peer-on-peer fights since 9/11 has
unquestionably reduced America’s ability to fight and win major
conventional wars.

The following community sites -- plus Cindy Sheehan and Jody Watley -- updated:

Know what would be infinitely better for Macron instead of intervening in the internal affairs of Syria? Answering the demands of the tens of thousands of Yellow Vests protesting wealth inequality all across France for 9 weekends straight now. #GiletsJaunes

Sarah Abdallah added,

FRANCE 24 EnglishVerified account@France24_en

France will remain 'militarily engaged' in Middle East through 2019 https://f24.my/4Hkc.t

As a US Senator and then Obama’s Secretary of State, your warmongering policies have destroyed millions of children and families in just about every part of the world. Save us the crocodile tears.

Sarah Abdallah added,

Hillary ClintonVerified account@HillaryClinton

“The Trump administration likely separated thousands more children from their parents at the Southern border than was previously believed.”
This is an outrage! We need hearings, answers, and solutions immediatel…

During your failed presidential bid, one of your policies was to support Islamic jihadists attempting to overthrow Syria's secular government - the very policy that led to the rise of ISIS in the first place.
You have absolutely zero credibility on the matter.

Paul Joseph Watson added,

Senator Mitt RomneyVerified account@SenatorRomney

This attack is a somber reminder that the threat from ISIS persists, and that the Administration’s decision to retreat from Syria now is a grave mistake.

The only thing that emboldens ISIS is warmongers like Graham and his old buddy McCain who promote regime change wars that topple secular governments and replace them with head-chopping terrorists. #Syria

Sarah Abdallah added,

CNNVerified account@CNN

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that he is concerned President Trump's statements about Syria have emboldened ISIS and called on Trump to rethink his decision to withdraw US troops from the country …

Reminder: Not satisfied with just spearheading the bombing of Libya back to the stone age and helping re-institute slavery, Hillary Clinton also pushed for the arming of jihadists in Syria—killing 560,000 people & forcing millions more to flee their homes.

Yeah. NATO’s dismemberment of Yugoslavia, destruction of Libya and destabilization of Syria, all of which created massive refugee crises that sent millions of people fleeing from their homes, definitely embody “successful”.

Sarah Abdallah added,

Adam SchiffVerified account@RepAdamSchiff

If Trump doesn’t understand that NATO is the most successful security alliance in history, I don’t know what it'll take to convince him.
But Congress won't allow Trump to jeopardize our national security and…

Israel just openly admitted for the first time that it has been arming the jihadists destabilizing Syria and terrorizing the Syrian people.
And how many mainstream media outlets are reporting on this bombshell? None. They simply are nowhere to be found.

So let me get this straight: Just as the US withdrawal from Syria begins, ISIS shows up in Manbij, a city it was kicked out from two years ago, and kills at least 5 US soldiers.
Can the warmongers who want to maintain the perpetual occupation of Syria be any less obvious?

Ron Paul: “What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?”

Trump merely contemplates withdrawing from NATO and Western governments, media outlets and pundits have a collective meltdown.
NATO actually destroys Libya, Africa’s most prosperous state, paving the way for jihadist fanatics to take over, and the same people barely say a word.

John Bolton’s long standing desire for regime change in Iran must be called out and shut down. If we’re serious about peace, we need to commit to diplomacy and be ready to meet with adversaries as well as friends.

That awkward moment when Obama sheds crocodile tears for Libya while still maintaining that his “humanitarian” intervention, which left the country spiralling into chaos and brought slave-selling jihadist militias to power, “was the right thing to do”.

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